


An Opened Door

by Inkribbon796



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Gen, SvS redux, everyone’s a mess, putting others first
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:09:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23978743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inkribbon796/pseuds/Inkribbon796
Summary: After the wedding, everyone’s a little on edge, but they’re trying their best.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 38





	An Opened Door

**Author's Note:**

> WARNING! Contains spoilers to the newest Sander Sides video: Selfishness vs Selflessness Redux. Will be tagged as such.

“Yes!” Janus shouted as he sank back down into the subconscious. “My genius was heard at last.”

Virgil was in the kitchen, rummaging around in the cupboards.

“Virgil,” Janus smiled. “Did you hear?”

The anxious Side gave Janus the stink-eye, pulling out a bottle of wine, and two glasses. “Oh yeah,” Virgil let out a dry chuckle, “I heard. The neighbors heard. Even . . .”

Virgil stopped, a name on the tip of his tongue. “Congrats, I’m going to wake up and this will all be a dream. If you see him before I do, tell Patton I’m on Prince-sitting duty.”

“With alcohol?” Janus hitched an eyebrow.

“Thomas is a grown adult and we can’t get hungover,” Virgil reminded, starting to sink out.

“Ugh, you can never let me enjoy anything,” the deceitful Side sighed, watching Virgil leave, glaring at the spot of ground.

Janus felt his good mood washing out of him, muttering angrily under his breath, “Remus got to enjoy his victory. Virgil gets his. Patton even gets to feel good.”

“You okay, kiddo?” Patton asked as he popped up.

Janus glared at him, “What happened to looking after Roman?”

“Virgil wanted to talk to him for a bit,” Patton looked away nervously. “And I wanted to check on you.”

“Oh I’m great, peachy,” Janus spat, looking through Thomas’s small liquor cabinet. “Apparently part of Thomas is getting drunk so all of us should get drunk. You want a mimosa?”

“I’m good,” Patton answered, coming a little bit closer but keeping the counter between them.

“Of course you are,” Janus scoffed.

“I wanted to come and thank you,” Patton said, leaning up on the tips of his toes.

The deceitful Side glared at him, a little bit of a snake lisp in his tone to punctuate his anger, “Don’t play around with me.”

“I’m not,” Patton promised. “You could have really drug me through the mud, and you kinda did, but it could have been way worse about it. A real sore winner.”

“You see, that’s what I never understood about you,” Janus turned away from the alcohol, coming to stand on the opposite side of the counter from Patton. “There are no sore winners, just winners. The insinuation that you have to feel bad about a victory is insulting.”

“Sorry,” Patton seemed to curl in on himself. “I just meant—”

“You meant what?” Janus leaned in.

“You just,” Patton faltered, his fingers tapping at the edge of the counter. “You could have been nasty about it, you were winning. I think you won from the moment Thomas came back, I was just . . . not listening.”

Patton kept looking at his fingers and the edge of the counter. “Sometimes I wish I was better at communicating like you, you make it look so easy.”

“Hard to have a conversation when no one listens,” Janus answered dryly.

“You did great though,” Patton told him. “I was being unreasonable and Thomas needed protecting and I don’t know what I would have done if I’d hurt him.”

“Well you tend not to think before you act,” Janus agreed.

“Thanks for taking care of him, it means a lot to me,” Patton smiled at Janus. “It means everything to me. I just want Thomas to be safe and happy, and a good person. If that means letting you talk to him more, I really think it’s a good idea.”

Janus smiled, folding his arms in front of you, “Nice to finally get some sense into you, baby steps, I suppose.”

Patton’s smile became even bigger and he moved to the side of the counter, holding his arms out. “Hug time!”

Janus took a step back, “I don’t think so.”

“Come on, think of it as a  _ ‘Welcome to the Family’ _ hug, come on Jay,” Patton kept his arms out.

“Don’t call me that again,” Janus told him.

“No promises,” Patton’s smile didn’t fade.

Rolling his eyes, Janus held his arms up a little bit. Patton squealed and rushed over to him, almost knocking them both over in the hug.

Janus flinched up, the only person who’d been hugging him had been Remus and Remus took his hugs whether you wanted them or not. Something that Deceit had learned to enjoy. Virgil had hugged him but that had only been a handful of times before he’d become a Core Side.

But Patton hugs felt warm, good.

It was a little startling for something that he’d normally only had been a reluctant appreciation, to actually feel good.

Slowly Janus wrapped his arms around Patton’s back and the more emotional side hugged him back just a little bit tighter.

As Janus and Patton were talking and literally hugging it out, Roman and Virgil were in the imagination. Logan has come in earlier to  _ “try damage control” _ as Janus and Logan were calling it. But Roman was not listening to him even when he was sober. Now that he was ingesting imaginary wine in the imagination he was getting increasingly drunk and Logan had given up to go back into Thomas’s memory to start working again.

“Who do they think they are?” Roman slurred, pointing with his now empty glass of wine. He’d downed half a bottle, and spilled about a glass’s equivalent of wine on the ground.

“Hmmm?” Virgil shrugged, he’d been sipping at his own glass. The anxious Side had already done his yelling at Logan, and wanted to give Roman his chance to complain.

“How am I supposed to protect Thomas with that slim-snake crawling all over him!” Roman spat.

“Dee’s a piece of work ain’t he?” Virgil took another sip.

“Dee,” Roman scoffed. “I liked him better as Deceit. Wha’ kinda name is Janice?”

Virgil coughed on the wine in his throat, “What?”

“Yeah,” Roman laughed, reaching for the wine bottle. “Told Tommy his name to make him believe him.”

Virgil set down his glass, staring at the prince, “Jan did what?”

Roman’s mind was already moving on, “Well Monsieur Snake-rarian has a’other thin’ comin’ if he thinks I’ll take this lyin’ down.”

The anxious side was still staring at Roman, too shocked to give his usual jab at Deceit’s expense.

“I’m a fo-okin’ hero!” Roman shouted in rage. “I’m supposed to be a hero. I can’t be a hero if Thomas is a villain.”

“Thomas isn’t a villain,” Virgil sighed.

Roman let out a sad scream, “That’s what he wants us to think, ‘fore he pulls the rug out of us.”

“Maybe you should take a nap and we can all talk to Thomas tomorrow morning,” Virgil proposed.

The creative Side scoffed at that, and then proceeded to complain about Janus’s existence for the next half-hour. Finally he seemed to fall asleep. Which Virgil was half-elated, half-worried.

Virgil cleaned up the room, left some water for him and then slipped up to see Patton and Janus on either side of Thomas, watching him playing Kingdom Hearts.

Janus eyes him cautiously as Virgil walked up beside him.

“Hey Scaly January,” Virgil greeted. “Heard the good news.”

Janus smiled at the nickname, “Did you now? From Logan or Roman?”

Virgil sat on the  _ “L” _ of the couch. “You would not believe the torrent of new nicknames he has for you.”

“Oh I believe it,” Janus managed a small smile.

“For the record,” Virgil’s tone became a bit more barbed. “You might be playing nice, Jee, but  _ I’ve _ been through this before. It’s gonna take more than a nice smile and a name for me trust you.”

“Virge,” Patton tried, glancing nervously at Thomas. He wasn’t really listening to their conversation yet, but if Virgil got worked up he would.

Janus held his hand up to stop Patton, an action that seemed to make Virgil angrier.

“No, Patt,” Virgil snapped, before letting out a disbelieving chuckle. “I can’t believe this.”

Virgil looked at Thomas, but instead of shouting, he just sank out.

“I can talk to him,” Patton leaned over.

“No,” Janus told him. “Let him go, he’ll listen more to Logan right now. We need to let Thomas focus.”

Patton looked at the spot where Virgil had been. He wanted to go after him, but he knew it wouldn’t help Virgil trust Janus. This was between the two of them, and Patton really couldn’t do anything.

“Okay,” Patton said, defeated.

“Focus on Goofy,” Janus said. “He’s fun.”

Patton balled up his fists, and walked over to sit next to Janus, trying to focus on the game and not the absolute mess of the rest of the mindscape.

**Author's Note:**

> I’m still in the Roman support group, he needs a bubble bath, five Emmys, and a hug. It’s just a coincidence that everyone else could use a hug too.


End file.
